Lieutenant Colonel Jan Willem van Dijk

Commander NLMARSOF The Netherlands Marine Corps

LtC Jan Willem van Dijk joint service with the Dutch Marine Corps in 1995. His current appointment is as Commanding Officer Netherlands Maritime Special Forces. Prior to this he served for four years (2014-2018) at the Defense Staff as a capability defense planner, focused on the replacement of the amphibious toolbox up to 2035. During this period he acted as co-author in writing the Future Littoral Operating Concept which now is the leading conceptual document for the development of amphibious capabilities within the Royal Dutch Navy.

During his career he commanded up to the BN-level in numerous jobs from infantry- to supporting arms troops and Special Forces, to his squadron command in the Caribbean (2010-2012). He originally graduated in Human Resource Management at the Royal Naval Institute and in 2011 got a Master degree at the Technical University of Delft (Delft Toptech) as Master of Public Safety. In 2014 he finished his Command and Staff college at the Netherlands Defense Academy.

During his career he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan on four occasions in combat as well as supporting jobs, mainly as a part of Special Forces Joint Task Groups. In his last deployment (2015) as J37 leading the OIR- effort in setting up the Joint Combined Special Operation Training Command within the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF-I) in Baghdad.